A Milwaukee grocery store owner is accused of stealing money that should be paying for infant formula.

State agents set up a sting operation targeting the owner of the Karina Mart at 12th Street and Lincoln Avenue, suspecting he was paying women cash for their vouchers that are supposed to be exchanged for baby formula.

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The store prominently displays its participation in the WIC program -- state taxpayer money that is supposed to help provide nutrition for women, infants and children. Instead, prosecutors said 54-year-old Safi Salameh was gaming the system.

According to prosecutors, a woman would go into the store with a couple of WIC vouchers that are supposed to be exchanged for several cans of infant formula.

Instead, prosecutors said Salameh was giving the women $50 in cash and submitting the vouchers to the state in exchange for about $170 dollars in cash, clearing some $120 in the process.

And, the babies weren't getting the formula.

Salameh is charged with five felonies, accused of stealing by fraud more than $27,000 in one year based on a state audit.

WISN 12 News reporter Nick Bohr confronted Salameh in his store Thursday afternoon. He refused to come out from behind the counter and talk with Bohr.

The investigation of this store owner took place over a year.

According to the complaint, before Salameh's arrest, state agents conducted four undercover operations there. Each one, they said provided more evidence of the scheme.